Thursday night’s NBA draft served as another feather in Chris Holtmann’s cap.
With Brice Sensabaugh selected 28th overall by the Utah Jazz, the Buckeyes have now produced three NBA draftees in the past two years after Malaki Branham and E.J. Liddell were both drafted a year ago.
With the 28th pick of the NBA Draft, the @utahjazz select Brice Sensabaugh!
— NBA (@NBA) June 23, 2023
Watch the 2023 #NBADraft presented by State Farm on ABC/ESPN. pic.twitter.com/oRHkZCbPa2
Branham was the first fully Holtmann-developed player to be taken in the NBA draft last year, ending a four-year drought of Buckeyes in the draft. Before Branham, who the San Antonio Spurs selected with the No. 20 pick in 2022, Keita Bates-Diop was the last Buckeye to be drafted in 2018. Holtmann took over the Ohio State program in 2017-18, which was Bates-Diop’s final year of college basketball after three previous campaigns under Thad Matta.
Liddell joined Branham in hearing his name called in 2022 when the New Orleans Pelicans selected him with the No. 41 overall pick in the second round. With multiple Buckeyes in the same draft class, Holtmann achieved a mark that hadn’t been replicated since 2007, when Greg Oden, Mike Conley and Daequan Cook were all drafted in the first round.
Now with Buckeyes selected in back-to-back draft classes, Holtmann and company have accomplished another historically significant feat. The last time Ohio State had draftees in consecutive years was 10 years ago, when Deshaun Thomas went 58th overall to the Spurs one year after Jared Sullinger went No. 21 to the Celtics in 2012.
With Sensabaugh and Branham both going within the first 30 picks in their respective drafts, Ohio State has first-round selections in consecutive years for the first time since 2009 (Byron Mullens) and '10 (Evan Turner). Sensabaugh and Branham also give Ohio State back-to-back one-and-done NBA draftees, which hadn't happened since 2008 and ‘09. Kosta Koufos went 23rd overall to the Utah Jazz in 2008 before Mullens was selected at pick No. 24 by the Dallas Mavericks the year after.
So while Thursday's draft represented, first and foremost, a dream come true for Sensabaugh, it's also an impressive mark for the Buckeyes as they continue putting more talent into the NBA.
